Key Bar in Austin. It's outside, it's away from the douchebags, and the barstaff is rad. I highty recommend it.
The Dublin Crossing in Cloverdale, BC. Live music all the time, the wait staff is really good, tons of regulars to get along with, and good food. I have spent way too many nights there hammered out of my tree. It's a little bit more expensive, but it's a really nicely built place, and the service there is usually very good.
The Heorot in my hometown of Muncie IN. they don't have a beer menu, they have a Binder. They only serve micro brews or imports. Its pretty much the coolest place ever.
One of the best bars that I've ever been to was the Slippery Noodle. Two rooms of freakin' kick-ass blues, one dark, smokey, with a little bit a rock-flavor and the other very bright, classic, and almost swinging blues. The people range from 18-70, and everyone was having a great time. Dancing, drinking, and generally just enjoying the place. I went with my girl, and we got there at 6, and stayed until the place closed down. Not to mention, the drinks were cheap and on our way out that let us carry out a 12 pack. What's not to like? Holy shit, someone other than my Brother / Sister n Law / Nieces live in Muncie? I've been here before, nice place.
There's a place called The Abbey that's about a block north of the movie theater on Lincoln Road Mall near South Beach, FL. They specialize in craft beer and imports, mainly from Belgium and Britain. The prices are slightly high but the alcohol level in most beers are between 8%-12% so you get a decent buzz while drinking something tastier than American macrobrews for about the same amount of money altogether. They also have three or four of their own beers on tap, brewed at the Indian River Brewing Company in Melbourne, FL: usually an IPA, a stout, and a Belgian trappist-style ale or two. It's totally the opposite of what one would expect of South Beach: it's a pretty small space (only about four booths against the wall and the bar itself, sometimes barely room to walk), usually smoky (they also sell cigars), there's no cover or dress code. Much more relaxed and less superficial than many other bars in the area. Another one of my favorites is New Moon in Ft Lauderdale, FL. It's a lesbian bar that's welcoming to anyone who might want to come by and hang out. They usually have a few ballgames on, live music on some nights, decent drink specials, and a chill "come-as-you-are" type of atmosphere.
The Nag's Head in Rochester has been a favourite of mine for years. A typical pub, with a group of regulars made up of a few people who stayed in the area shortly after graduating from the nearby University (Myself and a few friends included), elderly locals who chose to escape the various other pubs and bars in the area populated by the more irritating youths obsessed with testing their liver and sometimes, the law. Also not forgetting the Land Lady's welcoming family. The pub carries several themed nights such as; Wednesday Pool Competition Thursday Poker Friday Happy Hour Saturday Live Band Evening (usually terrible due to the lackluster performances of musicians refusing to rehearse their material or even practice on their own) Sunday Pub Quiz (with a free round of drinks for the winning team, and free lolly pops for the losing team) Quite often, the chess board behind the bar will disappear and be found in the possession of two men at the peculiar stage of inebriation where the mystery of life is discussed over a game of chess in the beer garden. Yes, yours truly is guilty of this on many occasions. The quiz night is usually good fun, with a mandatory round of general knowledge of the Medway Towns history and should I and a good friend be hosting the quiz, a question about Dawn French will sneak in. For reasons unknown, if we don't know the answer to a question, we'll enter Dawn French as the answer, so now there is a weekly question relating to Dawn French. Some interesting trivia - The pub was originally a Police Station, which would explain the peculiar layout of the building. The basement cell's still exist and should you anger Dave the Land Lord (Only Fool's and Horses fans, yes references are made all the time, no he is not amused and will quickly point out the error's in any joke at his expense) you can expect to spend fifteen minutes in the former cells to calm down, before being evicted from the premises.
Union Hall - Brooklyn, NY Indoor bocce courts, $3 Yuengling and $4 Red Stripe every night, and the odd burlesque show every now and then. The crowd can get hipster-ish at times, but I don't go to make friends. I go to play bocce, and get wasted on relatively cheap beer.
There are a lot of bars here in Songtan right outside the military gate. I would not be exaggerating if i said there were 100+ in walking distance. I became fond of Apple Bar though. Its just a nice quiet bar with dedicated customers, good waitstaff that knows you by name, knows your drink of choice before you even sit down, and calls you the next morning to make sure you got home OK. Free pool and darts, the luxury of changing the music anytime you want (no jukebox, just a pc full of mp3s), and pretty damn good bar food. They don't even mind if you bring in food from the restaurant down the street to eat at the bar. Oh yeah, cute Asian girls are a plus too!
McGregor's Bar and Grill in San Diego. Great staff, lots of flat screens, decent selection, good food, couple nice pools tables, multiple patios for the smokers, and stocked full of SoCal hot girls. The best I've found so far in MD near me is [urlhttp://www.bankshotbar.com/About_Us.html]Bankshot Bar and Grill.[/url] It's primarily a pool hall, but the bar is ringed with large flatscreens for football, the clientele, especially on Sundays is a lot of fun. And the club sandwhich is one of the best bar sandwiches I've had.
Fancy decor and fruity drinks don't impress me. At this age, I am more concerned with price. This is why I don't have much of a loyalty to any bar. The Grand Central in lincoln park has fucking awesome gourmet sliders (pulled pork, ground turkey, and some other shit) for a buck on certain days, so a couple beers and a few sliders is around ten bucks. Then there's the corner bar in Bucktown, where all day every day they have pitchers of beer for UNDER FIVE DOLLARS. Sure, it's Blatz, but whatever, that's cheap shit for a saturday night. That, and they allow dogs. I don't know if you've all had the pleasure of petting animals while intoxicated, but as a non-pet-owner, let me tell ya, it's fucking awesome. Beyond that, anything with a sign outside advertising drinks two bucks or less, be it mixed well drinks, beers, or shots (that day will never come, will it?) I will consider it my favorite bar of the moment.
I always drive less than 2 minutes from my house to Joxer Daly's here in Culver City. It's the ultimate locals pub owned by an Irishman who also happens to be on the city council (L.A. locals might remember him for getting knocked out a few months ago by one of the local thugs). Pretty cool place since I know almost everyone that frequents the place and is also the spot my racing buddies go to for Formula 1 Sunday's (unless it's NFL season). Tons of TV's featuring rugby, soccer, Aussie rules football and the bartenders pour strong drinks. Tuesday nights is money draw night, the owner adds $100 a week until someone wins or the pool reaches $1,000. And they have the greatest bar food I've ever had. http://joxerdalysirishpub.com/
The Cott is a great pub to go on a Sunday afternoon. http://www.cottesloebeachhotel.com.au/html/s01_home/home.asp Little creatures is also nice and brews their own beer onsite. https://www.littlecreatures.com.au/ High Road Hotel is a nice local and usually does different deals every few weeks. http://www.theguide.com.au/BrowseClient.aspx?AccountID=1638
My favorite bar is in Tallahassee, FL. It's called proof, it started out as a liquor store specializing in microbrews and beers from around the world. They have about 300 different options at any given point. They then added a bar in the same building that has 28 beers on tap that are mostly small/rare microbrews. Best part is the place is cheap, beers are usually around $4 and normally have good specials with $3 grey goose and such. http://www.ll100proof.com/
http://www.mcgintyspublichouse.com/silverspring/ Anyone in the DC Metro Area must put this place on your checklist. Live music, excellent drinks. Good prices, and the best burger's I've ever had.
I actually prefer Fermentation Lounge (http://www.thefermentationlounge.com/) but mainly because of their beer flights and I love the people who work behind the bar. I have to say that it was way better when it first opened, though, before all the college douchebags and urban wannabe hipsters showed up. However, definitively speaking, the best bar in the world is in Huntsville, Utah. It's called the Shooting Star Saloon, it dates (as a functioning bar) to 1879, and they also have the best burgers in the world. Utah is a hard place to get a drink, and it's an even harder place to find a cool bar. The Shooting Star has kept thousands of Gentiles sane over the years. It's trashy, earthy, and perfect. I also find the staff's zero tolerance policy for hipsters/douchebags extremely conducive to enjoyable drinking.
Oh my god are you fucking serious? You live in Chicago, arguably the drinking capital of the U.S. and you pick a generic lincoln park college/yuppie bar as the best in town? I live down the street from it and it is not in my top 25. If you're in Chicago you have 5 bars on every street corner and enough variety to quench any kind of alcoholic thirst. Kuma's Corner has wooden bear statues everywhere, the best burgers in town, great music and motherfucking Woodfoord Reserve and other whiskeys ON TAP. Salud - is the best Tequila bar in the midwest w/ awesome staff and the more extensive and authentic tequila list than anything else in the city. You want beer? Local Option, Clark Street Ale House, and Coopers all have amazing selections from around the world, or you could go to Goose Island or Rock Bottom where they brew it there themselves. Want to get seedy? The Viagra Trangle bars (Gibson's, Tavern, Hunt Club) have only the highest class hookers to accompany each scotch on the rocks. The Division bars have more sexually-frustrated suburban house wives than the line to get into the audience for Oprah and cheaper booze than your local frat party. I'm mean we're not even scratching the surface here and I am NOT doing it justice..... but Grand fucking Central? Really? Really? Edit: Ok I see that you only like the food there, and you named a few other places you prefer to drink at, but point stands. How about happy hour at Kendalls? $10 all you can drink domestic from 6-9 on fridays w/ a food buffet included, similar deals at durkins and the other "K" bars.
I'm a simple man, when I go to a bar, I just want good food, good beer and a relaxing atmosphere. When I want to party it up I'd rather do it at someone's house than a bar, so take my recommendations with a grain of salt, I have no idea what the best places to go to for getting smashed and finding sluts. I use to live in Newton, MA then moved to Boston. My favorite bars in Newton were: Dunn-Gaherin's- a nice family owned Irish pub that has EXTREMELY good food. Most of it was just good Irish comfort food (shepherd's pie etc...) with a gourmet twist, but they would branch out to other food too. My favorite thing on the menu was the Bangkok salad with Cajun fire steak tips. The mix of hot and cold with a spicy kick is just phenomenal. They also introduced me to eggplant fries, which are just awesome. Also, the bathroom walls were a painting of Fenway Park, it's really cool. Just down the street from there is The Biltmore which has a fairly unique spin on regular pub food and some of the best beers in town, I still go there sometimes when I visit the GF. Both of those places were in walking distance from me, which was awesome but damaging to the wallet... and liver. I really miss living there. When I moved to Boston I went to a place in Brookline called The Publick House a lot. Pretty much the same deal as the Biltmore, just good all around food and beer. They use to own a place called the Roadhouse which I would argue was even better, but it got shut down... something about serving BBQ food in a highly Jewish area didn't sit well. It's now the American Craft or something, decent burger place, but not nearly as good in my eyes. Also they only serve American beers there now, one of my favorite things about the other places is the selection of Belgian beers. Most people say you have to try the Sunset Grill in Boston, but honestly that place is overrated, yes they have the most beers on tap, but most of them are second rate beers you can find anywhere and the food blows.
OK, hopefully I can make a useful contribution. Chicago Downtown-- I like old-school saloons, but I like to drink alone. Berghoff's Cafe and Cavanaugh's, preferably in the middle of the afternoon. Both of these bars are gorgeous and old. Lots of wood, lots of shiny metal. Great when there's not too many people. Really noisy when they're full. Bucktown -- Danny's (an old apartment building converted into a bar 30 years ago), Maproom, the Charleston, and my favorite afternoon bar, Lottie's (in the evening it gets a little frat-tastic, but it's a great bar.) Basically, you can't go wrong anywhere in Bucktown, except maybe Can's on Damen (is that even still open)? Finally, although completely different from the above, and this gets me dangerously into hipster tool-box territory, Rodan on Milwaukee. I'll plead guilty to the tool-box category, but their food is great and cheap, the service is friendly, and the beer selection is good (but not Map-room good). Suburbs Evanston-- Tommy Nevin's. Great Beer Selection. Evanston, again-- Pete Miller's. Bear in mind, I'm an old dude. I think it shows.
My favorite bars in Denver: -Satellite- It's on Colfax and has cheap drinks, nice waitstaff, plays good music, and is close to my friends' house so it's an easy stumble home. -The British Bulldog-Besides a killer name, they have genuine English pub atmosphere, great drink specials, beer that I haven't been able to find anywhere else, and awesome food. -The Cherry Cricket- Although it's often packet, I love this bar. This place is a Denver legend. They have great drink specials, a ceiling painted like a hockey rink, and many celebrities such as Vince Vaughn drink here when they come to town.